The Messenger
by Vampy Sparda
Summary: A messenger has been found. Will her message be delivered?
1. The Encounter

Chapter One : The Encounter  
  
"You are the messenger..."  
  
"What? W...who are you? What do you want?!"  
  
"The messenger.... you are... the messenger..."  
  
"Messenger? What do you mean messenger?! I...I don't know what your talking about..."  
  
"You will understand your duties.... soon enough... Xyphos..."  
  
"Who are you?! What do you want? Just... just leave me alone..."  
  
After seeing a fleeting glimpse of... something, I woke up in a cold sweat. I could feel a lot of moisture around me, and not until I opened my eyes did I notice that I was covered with leaves. Very wet leaves. "Ugh... that's sorta nasty..." I said as I got up and started wiping the slimy clumps of foliage off of myself. When I removed the big pile that was on my face, I realized I had been asleep on a bench. It took me a while to focus and think over what had just happened. "I must have come out for a walk.... yeah... and then got tired... and sat down on the bench to rest... but I musta fallen asleep accidentally." I recalled outloud the past events.  
  
"But that dream... it was so bizzare. I wonder... what the 'messenger' is.. and who that voice belonged to and how they knew my name.." I sat back down on the bench to think about my situation. As I looked around the park I was in, I found no one else accompanied me that night. All that seemed alive was the streetlights lining the jagged pathway that twirled itself around the park. It was a pretty cold night, with a beautiful blue moon up in the sky and the stars winkling in and out through the black silken sky. It was quite peaceful, really. Made me think of those nights I spent with my mom.... but they were long past. No need to brood over it.  
  
When I finally caught a hold on my mind, I decided I better get back home before I caught a cold. Wrapping my black overcoat against my shoulders, I truged through the forested park towards my home. Because I was concentrating on keeping my mind very blank as to not confuse myself about the dream, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. So, in conclusion, I got sort of.... lost. When I finally started thinking again, I found myself in the middle of an alleyway. Not a very good enviroment to be in during the night for a young woman. Definitely not good. I quickly turned around, intent on not getting lost again on the way to my house, which I found pretty sad that I had done it already.  
  
I was well on my way when I saw a young man, looked about in his 20's, ahead of me. Coming right towards me. I could see something glinting in his hand. 'It's a gun!' I thought immediately. My guess was proven right when I heard the click of it being readied to shoot. 'Run messenger!' That... that voice! It was the one from the dream! 'Run... he's intent on capturing you! Run home! It's not your time to die yet!' I tried to get my feet moving, but they didn't want to move at all. Of course they went on lunch break when I needed them the most! I could do nothing but close my eyes and listen to the moving footsteps becoming louder and louder, and I could picture him raising his gun to shoot.... But then time seemed to stop completely. I opened my eyes to see the man in a freeze frame like you saw in a movie, him with one foot in the air, desperate to keep moving. I saw the gun frozen in the air, pointed straight at my head.   
  
Then... I saw nothing. A bright white light came into focus and possibly, exploded. The noise shrieked into my ears, and I quickly covered them and fell to the ground in pain. I felt like it was tearing my brain apart! I just wanted it to stop! While I rolled around in pain, the light continued to glow as brightly as before, and before I knew it, all that came into view was darkness.  
  
Once again I woke up, unaware that I had ever fallen asleep. This time I had happened to have just "landed" in my room in downtown Midgar. I wisked the sheets off of me and bits and pieces of what had happened last night came pushing and shoving their way into my head. It was a bit too much for me to bear and I fell back on my bed. As I looked around my room again, I started to wonder how I had gotten back. All I could remember was that man running towards me with a gun.... then the hugely bright white light... it made me think of something you see in a really cheesy movie. I sighed, starting to drift back to sleep...  
  
When my frickin' alarm rang. 5:15 A.M. on the dot. "Oh crap! I forgot today's Monday!" I cried out as I rushed around the room to get ready for work. I chose a black shirt and a pair of black pants (which was about the only style of clothes I had) and my favorite red coat my friend Alyson had given me on my last birthday. That's when I finally heard a distint 'tink!' and a "Damn!" to follow after it. I immediately thought 'Someone's in my house!'. As I stealthily creeped into the kitchen, I saw that it was only the previously mentioned Alyson, scurrying around the kitchen, and from what I could see, trying to make some eggs and bacon. "Alyson, what are you doing here?!" I cried out, nearly scaring her to death. She held her hand up to her heart while she replied. "God, you nearly killed me! Walking around like you own this place--" and which I intergected with an "I do!" but she continued anyways without so much as a glance up. "That's a nice thank you to the person who just dragged you off the street!"   
  
I was pretty shocked by this. I didn't know what she meant by 'dragged off the street"! From my shocked look she seemed to understand. "Oh, didn't you realize it yet? I found you on the street, unconsious mind you, while I was walking home from the office! Your lucky I had dropped my hat..." she said as she averted her attention back to the now sizzling breakfast. "Well, whatever, thanks a lot, I guess.. but I'm sorta in a hurry! I was supposed to be at work 5 minutes ago!" I said as I rushed out the door, leaving her alone to look after my apartment while I was gone.  
  
As I ran through the crowded streets towards the gunsmith, which was where I worked obviously, my thoughts happened to land again on the dream. Being the stupid person I am, trying to run through a crowded street, and thinking at the same time, I accidentally crashed into someone, knocking me and them both over. "Ohmygoshohmygosohmygosh!" I started mumbling over and over with my eyes closed as I sat up. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay..." I said as I opened my eyes only to see a pair of red ones staring into mine. Connected to a really handsome guy. He was really tall, even as he was leaning over me, with ivory-black hair about shoulder-length and from what I could see, a holster attached to one of his legs. He was wearing a pretty similar outfit to mine, just a simple black shirt and pants with a red overcoat. That sorta freaked me out a bit. Something was glinting around the area where his left arm was... or should I say should be? While I was staring at him, he shifted a little and I could see his entire left arm was golden! I looked like some kinda wierd claw from a old horror movie. He looked down at me with those blood-red eyes and asked very politely, "Are you okay, Miss?" I looked at him for a few more seconds until I sprang up. I muttered a quick "Yes, thank you, sorry for bumping into you," and sped off towards the gunsmith. But even after I had left him in the dust, I could feel his eyes boring into my back.  
  
Once I finally managed to scramble into the gunsmith, my two fellow workers, Zeke and Virgil greeted me with a quick hello and went straight back to work. It would be really bad if the boss saw us slacking off. I sure didn't want to be fired again. "Hey, Xyphos!" Zeke called out from behind the front counter down in the back room, "You got front counter duty!" I sighed as I heard the news. I hated interacting with the costumers, (who came to our buisness to buy guns or get them repaired, that's what we did) I always stuttered or made a fool of myself. Or they gave me wierd looks for being a woman. I guess you didn't see many women in the weapon buisness. Well, it being a Monday and all, so obviously it wasn't going to become rush hour suddenly, I slid up a stool behind the counter and took out a favorite book of mine, one about vampires. Pretty interesting stuff. Right when I was getting to the good part, the door-bell rang. When I say door-bell by the way, I'm talking about one of those bells over the door that rings when you open the door.  
  
Anyways, when I looked up from my book, I was shocked to find that it was that guy I had run into earlier. He was even more handsome in the light than I thought! Being that, when I had first saw him, it was dark outside. Blushing slightly at not apoligizing to him correctly, I put my book behind the counter and asked in my most pleasant voice, "How can I help you sir?" When he walked in, he had been looking around the store, but when I spoke up he looked right at me. I flinched a little, I mean, having blood-red eyes looking straight at you was a bit uncomfortable. In the light I could see his profile a lot better. He had gorgeous shoulder-length black hair that looked like silk, and, who could forget the blood eyes? He wore a black shirt with buttons down the middle, and regular looking black pants. He wore strange looking boots that had metal plating covering the tops of them. I saw again the holster to the gun, which was a bit odd, because you really didn't see many people carrying around guns these days. Or any weapons for a matter of fact. He was also very pale, and at first he looked like some kind of wierd vampire. He had a red cape-like coat on, with a matching bandana around his head. Both of them blood-red, just like his eyes. 'Must have a thing for red...' I thought. He was also very tall. Like 6'0. He was quite intimidating altogether. That last think that caught my attention, again, was his left hand. I could see from here that the entire arm was a claw. A big golden claw, with very sharp looking finger-like things on it. I didn't even want to know the story about how he got it. He looked pretty evilish at first glance, and you could probably tell he wasn't very social and used to coming outside a lot. But he was a surprisingly well-mannered man.  
  
As soon as he saw me, his eyes widened a little in recognition. I blushed a little more. "Oh... uh.. hey, it's you. Uh... sorry I ran off in such a hurry, I sorta didn't want to be late..." I muttered as he walked up to counter. "Don't worry, it's not a problem. I was just afriad I had scared or hurt you." he answered back. Wow! Good-looking and a gentlemen! You didn't see many of those around Midgar. I could feel my face getting redder every minute. "Oh, it's not a problem... Well, now that we've got that cleared up, what can I do for you?" I asked patiently and with my kindest voice. He slipped a gun, a very large one, onto the counter. "I'm having problems using this. I looked it over and cleaned it up, but I couldn't find anything wrong with it. I heard this was the best place to come to for broken guns." he said, without a trace of emotion. Man, having those eyes staring at you was pretty unnerving. I shuddered innvolintarily. I picked up the gun, and nearly dropped it again. Right when I had touched it, it had started glowing! You could see some kind of aura around it. I looked up at the man again and raised an eyebrow. He looked a bit shocked himself. "Does it normally glow like this, sir?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. He shook his head slowly. "I've never seen it do that before." he responded almost mechanically.   
  
* * * * * * *  
  
I stared at this strange girl as she held my beloved weapon, the Death Penalty. She was fairly tall, with bright green eyes and black hair. She was also pretty slim and beautiful. I wondered, why did it glow like that? It had never done such a thing before. I wondered if it meant something. Maybe Lucrecia had to do something with it! But my sense told me she was long gone, her soul resting peacefully in the Lifestream. I had visited her waterfall time and time again, but I never found anything, not the smallest trace of life. But still, what did this mean? I decided to leave the gun at the smithy overnight to see if they could find anything wrong with it. After leaving the gun with the girl, I decided to head home, back to my apartment down in Sector 5. All the way home, I pondered what the glowing gun could mean, and what was the connection between it and that girl?  
  
  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
I was very glad when he left. We had a really dark aura around him. Sorta evilish. I shrugged. Whatever. Let him be what he wants. After he left, I looked at the gun more closely. I looked the most close at the handle. There seemed to be something in it, it was where most of the glow seemed to be originating from. As I studied the oaken handle, I saw writing appear! It was written in beautiful handwriting, and it moved along as though it was being written by an invisible hand. Slowly I could form the words, "Vincent & Lucrecia" written in a cursive style handwriting, seemingly burned into the wood. Now this made me completely shocked! I had just seen something written, no, burned into wood! This was definitely not a normal day. I sighed. What was I going to tell that guy?! That I had just seen something.. or someone write two people's names into his gun! This was not good, not at all. I told Zeke I was going out back to see what was wrong with the weapon, and I continued studying it very closely as I moved around to the back. In the back of the gunsmith's, me and Virgil had built up a sort of "practice range" to use to make sure the guns we made and fixed worked okay, and weren't about to blow up in our customer's face. That would be sorta bad for buisness. 


	2. Ghost From The Past

Chapter Two : Ghost From The Past  
  
After loading the gun with a couple of bullets, I continued on to the backroom. Our practice range was orginally a kitchen, but me and Virgil fixed it into something that would be more helpful. It was a huge room, all the walls a stone brick red, which helped a lot when a bullet richoched off a target. The targets were just round cut-outs of wood, that were connected to a machine that moved them from left to right across the room, and back. This was obviously what we used for targets. I hit the switch to get them moving and warmed up.  
  
Once the targets were up and moving, I put on some earmuffs, and fired a couple of shots. From what I could see at first, there was absolutly nothing wrong with the gun. I reloaded it quickly and fired some more off. Nothing was different. It fired very smoothly, without hardly any whiplash, which you didn't see in many guns. As I was putting my earmuffs back up on the rack I got them off of, I heard the doorbell ring. Turning off the targets, I raced through the backrooms to the front counter. Of course, it was the same guy from before. "I came to see if any problems were discovered." he said as I reached the counter. "Well.... I'm sorry, but to tell ya the truth I couldn't find anything wrong with it. There's no clog of any sort, its very nicely cleaned, and the bullets weren't the wrong kind or anything like that. I dunno how to help you any further... but if you wanna come around back to our practice range and see for yourself I'll be happy to escort you." I said as I slid on top of my stool. He raised his eyebrow at the offer. "Well.... I guess I'll take you up on that offer." he answered after a couple of minutes had passed.  
  
I quickly led him to the practice range and started the machine up again. It wouldn't take long to warm it up since I had just been using it. Zeke peeked his head in, and by his expression I could tell that he didn't like this stranger in our backroom. I shrugged and signed for him to leave. He appliged almost immediately. "Very nice room you have back here." he said out of the blue. I jumped a little as I heard the click of the gun being loaded. "Oh... thanks. Me and a co-worker built it by ourselves..." I said as I watched the targets move back and forth. "Well, anytime your ready, go ahead." I put on my earmuffs and stepped back a little as I watched him try to fire the gun. He pulled the trigger, hard. Nothing happened. Not a puff of smoke, no smell, no noise. "I thought you said nothing was wrong with it." he said as he turned to look at me. I could feel my face turning beet-red. "Here, lemme see it again.." I grabbed the gun out of his hands and fired a shot. It worked. Perfectly, it shot a bullet straight through one of the targets. "Well, this is very interesting." he said as I saw an small expression of shock on his face. 


End file.
